The Visiting Twins
by Flute Chick
Summary: Just a week after the Titan Atlas is trapped once again under the sky, two unexpected people come to Camp Half-Blood with a set of five books, all with a VERY familiar name on the front. Only strange occurrences can follow . . . I can't think of a good genre for this one.
1. Strangers Fall on Top of Me

**Brand. New. Story! I'm so excited! Oh, and by the way, I will not have Luke C. joining us on this-and I think I'll have a few other "visitors" join as well. You'll get it in a bit. **

* * *

Now look, I thought the craziness was over with for the winter. I had some stuff at camp that I needed, and my mom came with me with special permission. I had just gotten out of my cabin when two arguing, screaming kids my age fell on top of me as if they'd just jumped off of the roof of my cabin.

"LUKE YOU IDIOT!" roared a female voice. Another, more masculine one, shouted back at her.

"Oh, so I'm the idiot? Who called her a psycho, you or me?" he snapped. But it wasn't the Luke I knew, and I didn't recognize either one of them. The girl got really mad now, and there were soon other people gathering around the commotion. Now that they were off of me, I could see them more clearly. The boy, Luke, was my age, with messy blonde hair and weird eyes—one bright green, one stormy gray. He wore jeans, high-tops, and a normal Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and necklace—six beads. The girl was probably the same age, his sister, but they looked pretty different. She had wavy black hair and muted green eyes, like the gray and green mixed together. Black shorts and gladiator sandals is what she wore rather than what her brother did. She had the same number of beads.

"Oh, yeah? It's not like you weren't thinking it. Last time I checked, I didn't tell her she belonged in the loony bin. Who tells the goddess of witches _that_?" she snapped. Annabeth finally broke into the conversation.

"All right, who _are_ you two and why were you insulting Hecate?" she asked. They then just realized that they had an audience.

"Oh. Uh. Well. You see, we were on a quest, and she sent some monsters after us because she rather doesn't like our dad," the girl started.

"Then she came to us after we killed them all off to congratulate us, saying it was some test, and that she would reward us with the promise of staying her servants forever. Naturally, we declined," said Luke, "and she didn't like it. So she told us that we were going to learn a lesson by being sent back in time to the camp we know and love—only it would be different. The five books we were originally given at the start of our quest, we're supposed to read with the entire camp after we meet Hecate, according to our Oracle, Rachel," he finished.

"Rachel? Rachel Dare?" I asked suddenly. It couldn't be that girl from the dam.

"Yeah, I think so. She's a really nice lady and all, but I still say that our godparents, friends, and parents are way cooler," said Luke proudly, "although I wouldn't mind trading my sister, Silena," he grumled. She smacked him upside the head.

"Well, except for the bit about me, it's true. By godparents he _doesn't_ mean our immortal parents, seeing as we don't have any. We mean the people that our parents chose to help take care of us if something ever happens to them. Yes, we are still half-bloods. Our parents are each a half blood from a different cabin, in case you were wondering," said Silena, reciting it as if she'd said it one too many times.

"So . . . are your parents campers here, now?" asked one of the Aphrodite girls, squealing.

"I don't know," said Luke, "But we need to talk to Chiron. He needs to know about this," he said.

"I already do," said Chiron, who had been standing behind the two, "and I believe you. I think we should go to the campfire to read these books you have. All activities will be postponed while we read—are there any people in particular that you would want to bring along?"

"Thalia Grace, Nico DiAngelo, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and . . . well, everyone who comes to camp, of course," said Silena, "Oh, and I guess you want to know who we are? The full story?"

"That would be helpful," Chiron said.

"Now, how could we do this, considering our parents are here . . ."

"Well, perhaps you could name them," said Clarisse in a bad imitation of Silena. Said girl turned towards the daughter of Ares.

"Don't tell me . . . Clarisse Rodriguez? The Ares counselor?" Luke suddenly said.

"Rodriguez? That's not my last name," Clarisse frowned.

"Oh," Luke blushed, "Then I guess you _are_ married to that guy who hangs around Argus. Whoops," he said.

"Funny. Hilarious. Now who are you?" asked Annabeth, glaring between them.

"I'm getting sick of this game, just tell us your names!" I said.

"Nice rhyming. I'm Silena Thalia Jackson," said Silena. I gaped at her, thinking that it couldn't be.

"And I'm Luke Charles Jackson. Well, we can always just call out our parents by getting Mom to call Dad Seaweed Brain," Luke said. _Well, that would explain it all. And Luke has blonde hair . . . his gray eye matches . . . oh, gods. _

"You're trying to say . . . I'm your dad?" I asked. Their eyes widened.

"Then _you're_ Percy Jackson. Styx," swore Silena, "And I suppose our mom is around here too. Come on out, Wise Girl," she continued. Annabeth was now turning as red as a cherry. There were wolf-whistles, and Annabeth immediately sent a glare around at everyone, unsure of who did it. I got the feeling it was the Stoll brothers. We all gathered at the campfire a few hours later and Silena picked up the first book.

"The first book is called **Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.**" I groaned.

"Great, so now we have to read about him," said Nico darkly.

"How'd you get him to come?" I whispered to Luke.

"I was very persuasive and I promised him that we would read more about what happened. I also told him that he'd learn about his parents in the later books."

"And Thalia?"

"Silena convinced Artemis about that. The gods are at Olympus listening to the reading too." Great, more reasons to want to kill me.

"Who wants to start the first chapter?" Chiron asked.

"I'll do it," said Annabeth.

* * *

**Woohoo! Yes! Now, this will take forever to have me get each chapter up for this one, so I apologize for long waits in advance. Oh! And disclaimer!**

**In this entire fanfiction, I do not own Peter Johnson-sorry-Percy Jackson, any of the characters except the ones from the future, and certainly none of the text in bold except for my A/N's. **


	2. Of Vaporized Math Teachers

And here is chapter two!

* * *

**I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher**

There were snickers, but I grimaced. So _this_ was where we were starting.

"Gods, this story again?" sighed Silena, "Well, at least I get to hear how it happened in real time instead of the censored bedtime story version from dad and Grover. This'll be more interesting."

"Then again, no one would tell us anything about Dad and the Great Prophecy and all that mumbo-jumbo. Something about the Titan war. I don't know. Nico told me about back when he hated Dad's guts—I guess that's now—so I think knowing all this stuff from the book will be different. We get all the details," reasoned Luke.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Who does?"

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:** **close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"Well, that was good advice, at least," said Thalia.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Really? I thought you were Annabeth," said Travis Stoll. She glared at them.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a **_**few **_**months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Anyone with a brain would know that," said Thalia.

"But then again, you could say that about most half-bloods," said Silena Beuregard.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"At least he admits it," said Grover. I rolled my eyes.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Was this, then, the first clue that you were a half-blood?" asked someone I didn't know from the Apollo Cabin.

"What do you think?" I asked.

**I know—it sounds like torture.** **Most Yancy field trips were.**

Everyone but Annabeth and Luke nodded their heads, while the two glared around at everyone.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Mr. Brunner . . . where have I heard that?" asked Annabeth. Grover and I looked at one another and chuckled. Something we knew that she didn't.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Oh, it's Chiron then," she said. I frowned—why'd she have to figure it out?

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"Fat chance," chorused the Stoll brothers.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"Don't we know it?" everyone responded.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"Then . . . what were you aiming for? And how did you get ammo into the cannon?" one of the Ares kids asked. I felt my face get hot.

"Well, uh . . ."

"Never mind."

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

Everyone nodded.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"And that will help . . . how?" asked Silena. (I'll call Silena Beauregard Silena B. Percy's daughter will just be Silena.)

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover** **in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Okay . . . why does she like peanut butter and _ketchup_?" asked another Aphrodite girl. I shrugged.

"I always considered her a freak of nature anyway."

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.** **He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Everyone laughed as Grover turned strawberry red, ducking his head and not succeeding.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Death by in-school suspension?" asked Annabeth.

"To me, that kind of thing could kill. It's torture!"

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"And ketchup?"

"…No."

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Do it, do it," cheered a few of the Hermes kids. The Stoll twins, probably.

"Wish I did," I muttered.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"Still do," I muttered more loudly.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"That's true, but then, you never would have net any of us," said Annabeth.

"I think I would have. Probably not for another few weeks though," I said, then decided to add, "and I would have been _way_ more freaked out."

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele, **_**for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.** **Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Nervous because of her replacement?" asked Thalia. I nodded.

"Probably. She was scary enough."

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. **

"If only," everyone chorused.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Wow," said Nico, "you nearly gave away your cover?" Grover's ears turned pink.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

"How _interesting_," said Silena dramatically.

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

"And punched her in the nose, after which I got detention," Annabeth continued, as if she was still reading.

"That's not what happened," I said, and she pouted and moved on.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he **_**did **_**this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,** **and—"**

"God? _Dad_, I thought you knew better!" scoffed Luke.

"I know that _now_." I was going to be saying that a lot. At least once a chapter.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Wimps," scoffed Clarisse, who'd been one of the few to be brought here.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"That should be physically impossible," noted Nico.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. **

"Aren't they all?" asked Thalia, eyeing Nico and I.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." **

"Yes?" Luke responded without thinking, then turned scarlet when he realized it wasn't him. I chuckled.

**I knew that was coming.**

"Noooo . . .. that's Rachel," said Silena. Not Rachel Dare, I hoped.

"Huh? Who's Rachel?" asked Silena B.

"Our Oracle. It'll be explained in one of the books, I'm sure."

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"Because you must learn to use the force if you are ever to defeat Vader," chuckled the Stolls. I grinned.

"Luke, I am your father," I said. He feigned shock and screamed:

"Noooooooo!" Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"No one will ever be able to remember all of that," complained Travis.

"I got close one day. Not everyone liked his class, I guess."

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"I had," Chiron said sadly.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

"Global warming," scoffed Thalia.

"Eh, I didn't know a thing then. What is it, pick on Percy day?"

"No, we just like making fun of you, Seaweed Brain," said Annabeth.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"You're not freaks," said Silena slowly, "Except the Stolls. They're creepy little elf-boys who I will never let anywhere near me while I sleep at night."

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Gasp! He admits it!"

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Grover blushed.

"You must have been hungry," chuckled an Apollo camper I didn't know.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Grandma gives me that look too, Dad. You're not alone," said Silena.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

The Stolls grinned and seemed to be writing something in a notebook. I made a mental note to avoid them if they had anything orange on them for the next week on.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"And it begins," said Luke ominously.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"You should pay more attention, Seaweed Brain," said Annabeth.

"I would have if I'd known what was coming," I snapped.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"Nope. Nothing would have been the right thing to say at that point. She hates our guts, too," said Silena.

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

Nico chuckled. Everyone stared at him.

"What? You know who she is, right?" No one did but Grover, Annabeth and I.

"Then the death comment is kind of foreshadowing."

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. **

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_—**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"Thanks for trying to keep me alive," I repeated.

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

Which I sent around the circle at anyone who bothered snickering. They shut up.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"Not quite true," said Chiron.

**I wasn't so sure.**

He nodded approvingly.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"I was paying attention. I just needed the right moment to come in without her suspecting me," Chiron assured everyone.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Never is with the Kindly Ones," muttered Luke, rubbing his arm like there had once been a wound there.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"She probably did," sighed someone I couldn't see across the campfire.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

At this, everyone burst out laughing, even me. Then I looked around.

"Is no one concerned for my safety?"

"You're here and alive, Seaweed Brain, so that's all the proof we need," said Annabeth.

"Wait until we get to the fourth book. You won't be so sure," said Luke.

"Why's that? You're here."

"It happens this coming summer. And who knows when we were born except us? Keep reading." Silena said, crossing her arms.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

The Stoll brothers both looked at me hopefully.

"None," I said, and they looked down in disappointment, muttering about sugar.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"It's a good book!" defended both Luke and Annabeth.

"Mommy's boy," muttered Silena. He glared at her.

"Daddy's girl."

"Star-Wars wannabe."

"Bubble Head."

"Both of you quit it before Annabeth and Percy take sides and the Stolls start placing bets," said Grover. They both got quiet.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"So she's a Kindly One?" gasped an Aphrodite camper I didn't know.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"That's actually a good thing he used that sword. No one except maybe Percy or Grover would have risk of getting hurt," said Thalia approvingly.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Would she stop with the 'honey' thing?" groaned Nico.

"Nope," said Silena and Luke.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"So that's his first monster. Why'd Mom tell us it was the Minotaur?"

"Because that was the first one she knew about."

"Oh, right."

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

Everyone laughed.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"You wish!"

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" chorused everyone who didn't know.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our **_**teacher.**_ **Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

"It's the Mist," stated Silena, "And it messed with their memories."

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"You're a horrible liar, man," I told him. He shrugged.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

"Dad agrees," chuckled Thalia.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

"Well, I had to keep up appearances."

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"And now I do. Except for that one class where the only pen I had was Anaklusmos . . . that wasn't the best idea . . ." I admitted.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Seriously, Grover, you need to learn how to lie," said Connor Stoll.

"That's the end of the chapter," Annabeth said, "Grover, do you want to read next?"

"Sure. **Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**


	3. Of Old Ladies, Socks, and Luke's Crush

I'm baaaaaack! And WOW! A lot of people have read this! So here is the next chapter with a CLIFFHANGER! Muahahahahaha! (read while she continues to laugh insanely due to the fact that she should probably go to bed now.)

* * *

**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**

"Ugh, more death omens?"

"At least they knit socks and not something weird," joked Silena.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

"Are you kidding? You've got more weird experiences than us, and we are talking to our parents at our age!" said Silena.

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"I believe that. Of course. The entire school is playing a practical joke on you," said Travis seriously.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"But you are—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Thalia."

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Grover needs lying lessons. I think we'll take him in," said Travis. Grover's eyes widened.

"Uh-uh. No way. Not happening."

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Well, they _do_ have a point," I said.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

"Yes. You defeated your math teacher with a ballpoint pen."

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"That was definitely a sign of _something_ happening. But what was going on?" asked Nico. I then realized he wouldn't know any of this stuff until we got to book three.

"Well, think of the title."

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. **

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Ooooh," said some of the Hermes guys. I rolled my eyes.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Silena chuckled.

"From what I hear, that means that the one time you actually don't know you're insulting someone, you do a good job. Not that I'm much better," she explained.

"At least she admits it," proclaimed Luke.

"Oh, yeah?" She glared at him and for a second I recognized it as Annabeth's glare, mixed with a small bit of my own.

"You're also wonderful at comebacks," Luke replied smoothly.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Aw, is Prissy missing his wittle mummy?" sneered Clarisse.

"Shut up," I replied.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,** **even if he was a little strange.**

"No offense, G-man," I said.

"No problem."

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Okay, that, I take offense to," he said, looking at me. I shrugged.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by it. You always let everyone pick on you . . ."

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"Thank you, Percy," Chiron smiled slightly at me.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"It was the only one where the teacher mattered to me," I explained, "so don't give me that look, Wise Girl."

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"He has some sense!"

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,** (at this, Annabeth and Grover snickered) **or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"Ancient Greek is so much easier," Luke smiled, "But Latin _is_ useful . . ."

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

The Stolls got a certain gleam in their eyes that reminded me again to avoid them.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

"I'm glad you thought so highly of me," I said quietly.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Aw," Silena B. cooed. I felt my face get very hot and looked down.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

"You should have closed the door!" said Annabeth.

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

_**"...**_ **worried about Percy, sir."**

"You heard all but five words of the conversation!" Grover groaned.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,** **but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"I could do it . . . probably . . ." Luke said. Silena scoffed.

"Are you kidding? Just imagine _Alexis_ talking to Chiron about you," she said, an almost evil gleam in her eye.

"Shut up," Luke said, glaring at her, but I noticed he was turning red like I did when someone insinuated something about me and Annabeth.

"Alexis?" I asked.

"She's a camper that we hang out with a lot. Whatever Luke says, he's in love with her. He just denies it," Silena said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"I do _not_! She's my best friend, okay? I wanted to take _her_ on this quest, but it ended up having to be you," he growled.

"Oh? So I don't suppose you're glad that you don't have to have her here, where you can make googley eyes at her while you think no one's looking?"

While they continued to argue, Grover started reading again.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"He's still not mature enough," Annabeth joked.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— **_**"**_

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he **_**saw **_**her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"However, this conversation might prove otherwise," Chiron grumbled.

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"So you hid from Chiron? You'd think he'd be able to find you."

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

"Having to go through exams _over_ and _over_ and _over_ again? I feel for you, Grover," said Silena.

"I think everyone does," declared Nico, and when everyone stared at him, "What? I'm not allowed to comment unless it's to be angry at Percy? I _am_ human, you know," he huffed.

"Well," someone said. He glared in their direction. (**A/N: That would be my sister as I type this out.) **They squeaked.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"And I'm surprised you didn't confront me right then and there," Grover said.

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"That's kind of hard to do, considering I hadn't been dreaming or anything like that," I said.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,** **my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

"Way to make him feel depressed. You're the one he looked up to, and the way I bet you're going to put it, this won't be pretty," Luke said.

"How'd you figure that one out?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Dunno."

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"I'm sorry, Percy, for having it come out that way."

"That's fine, sir."

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I don't think that the gods will appreciate that comment," chuckled someone.

"The family that I knew at that particular point. I wasn't rich and we weren't famous," I explained.

"You're not a nobody, Percy. That's me," said Annabeth, grinning. Everyone looked at her oddly, but I just chuckled. They'd get it . . . eventually.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,** **so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"And it looks like we never really had to say goodbye like I thought," I said, looking at Grover pointedly.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"That gave me a heart attack. I hope you know that," Grover said, glaring at me. I shrugged, not saying sorry.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did **_**you hear?"**

"_Everything_ except for 'Sir? Can I talk to you?'"

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"And you know it. But I guess it has improved, since you had to spend all that time on that . . . island," I commented. Even if that Cyclops was an idiot . . .

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800)**_ _**009-0009**_

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"I'd hoped you were normal. Now I know just how goatly you are," I grinned.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

"Well, I certainly won't be protecting you on any more quests then, huh?" Grover grumbled.

"Aw, you know you love to hang around me. I happen to like having you around, and you've done far more for me than me for you," I said.

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"I'm hungry," complained Connor.

"We'll eat when we're done with this chapter. Now let me read, okay?"

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice**_**. **_**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. **

Everyone shivered, as they realized who these ladies were.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Oh, they're looking at you, all right," said Silena, shuddering, "And I hope you don't see them cut a string. I've heard bad things about that."

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny," muttered Luke.

"Are you kidding? Of course it's funny," chuckled the Stolls, but even they seemed on edge.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic.**

Silena flinched.

"I did _not_ need to hear that. Someone will die . . . and you'll be there to witness it." I stared at her.

"Or . . . could it be me?"

"That's a possibility too. But I like to think you'll witness it. Much cheerier to read about you watching death than experiencing it, no?" she laughed humorlessly.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Well, that broke the tension somewhat, and everyone laughed a little at my expense.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything."

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Well, not the way you'd think. But they are part of a trio of old ladies."

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"It's instinct to know that. You know _someone_ is going to die . . ."

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

"Goat-boy, you'd better not still be beating yourself up over me," Thalia growled.

"Uh, no. In the book, yes."

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"Should've made me swear on the Styx," I muttered.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"And broke it," he said, glaring at me.

"I'm sorry, G-man, but you were scaring me. A lot."

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes. It does," Nico said.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"On that happy note, it's lunchtime," said Chiron, but not before a bright light flashed and a girl fell and tumbled in the grass.

She had straight black hair that went just past her shoulders, curling in at the tips and dyed a dark shade of indigo in different, random streaks all over. She wore a bomber's jacket—just like Nico's—over a black t-shirt and ripped black jeans. Her thick eyeliner and dark eyeshadow that matched her hair made her black eyes look larger than they were. It was a big contrast to her olive-toned skin.

"Luke? Silena?" she stood, looking around and finally spotting them.

"Who are you?" asked Annabeth. She turned to face her.

"My name is Alexis Bianca Di Angelo. My mother is Charlotte Oriander, daughter of Hecate, and my father is Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades."

* * *

-hahaha-Oh, you're still here? Well, I did warn you about the cliffhanger, no? Yeah, that's right, I didn't pair Nico up with Thalia. Why? She's a Hunter. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I would like to point out two things:

1. Heroes of Olympus series DOES NOT EXIST in this fanfiction. I dislike where it is starting to lead after having read Son of Neptune. I like the characters, don't get me wrong! But ... sigh ... I don't want Frank to die! And somehow I just know it's going to be Leo's doing, and we can't have that ... again, sigh.

2. I do not own Percy Jackson. I never owned Percy Jackson. I never will own Percy Jackson. This means every word in bold for each of these chapters and most of the characters are not of my creation. Luke Jackson, Silena Jackson, and Alexis Di Angelo are mine, though, and Charlotte was just a random name I came up with. The last name kind of came to me when my sister mentioned Ollivander. Ironic for a daughter of Hecate, no?

PEACE! LATER! **EXCLAMATION POINT!**

-Flute Chick


	4. Grover's Pants are Gone!

**And now, for everyone's reactions to this little family reunion...**

* * *

"_My name is Alexis Bianca Di Angelo. My mother is Charlotte Oriander, daughter of Hecate, and my father is Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades."_

Nico just about fainted. Alexis was the first at his side when he _did_ collapse.

"Nico! Nico!" Her face, now that I noticed, was a nearly exact copy of his, only thinner and longer.

"Urgh—uh—huh?" Something like that came from his mouth, and she shrugged before slapping him. With that, he jumped to his feet.

"You're _my_ daughter?" he shouted, shocked. She smiled.

"You bet."

"_They_ failed to mention that when they talked about you," he grumbled, pointing at Luke and Silena. She turned her head to glance at them and chuckled.

"I'd be offended, but then I'd have to say it wasn't funny to watch my dad faint." He glared at her, but she simply grinned. Brave heroes who had seen war would have run to their mommies, but she just grinned like it was nothing.

"We were just off to lunch," said Grover.

"Great."

For once, Chiron suggested that we all have lunch together at the Big House. Annabeth was sitting on one side of me, while Silena was on the other. Luke was by Alexis, who was hitting him upside the head for freaking her out and making her worry about his safety. Nico settled for glaring at me while he ate, and Thalia was arguing with Silena Beauregard about some book they both read a few weeks ago. Dusk or Evening or something like that. I didn't ask.

"So Annabeth . . ." I said, feeling awkward, "What are you thinking for Capture the Flag this week?" Silena's eyes grew wide and she grinned.

"I've got to join in on this one! Cabin Three all the way!"

"You're in my cabin?"

"Yeah. I'm more like you than mom. And Luke is in Athena's cabin. Like I said earlier, he's a momma's boy," she grinned. Luke glared at her in hearing that.

"Don't worry, Luke. So's Percy," grinned Travis.

"Please don't compare me to Dad," Luke groaned, "I've had enough of that in the arena. Silena is better with knives, but I can't handle them well. No one weapon really works for me."

"Ever try a sword?" asked Nico through a mouthful of pasta.

"Obviously not. None of the ones I've tried are weighted correctly," he muttered. Annabeth snickered.

"That's how Percy was in the beginning, you know," she said. Luke rolled his eyes, but I could tell that it was weird for him—he was used to being compared to Annabeth, not me.

"Whatever. Seriously, though, Capture the Flag: what are we going to do?"

"Well, I was thinking . . ."

After dinner and long conversations similar to that, we were back for reading.

"You know, rather than keeping track of who reads it, I can just use a spell to make the book recite it out loud," said Alexis.

"That would be much easier," agreed Clarisse.

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants **

"Uh . . . Grover? I hope this has to do with revealing you're a satyr. Otherwise, we'll have to talk seriously," said Silena, smirking. He blushed and ducked his head as the Stolls laughed loudly, and everyone else rolled their eyes.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Sorry, Grover. You were scaring me."

"No problem."

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"I'd be terrified," agreed most of the campers.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Momma's boy," coughed Clarisse. Some Ares campers snickered along.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"Wow. I think I agree with that statement, Perce," said Grover.

"I always thought that it was more like 'the people with the rottenest luck are the nicest.' They have it bad, so they don't lord anything over you," said Silena.

"Not really. There are some who'd just complain and grumble and make a big fuss," said Beckendorf, who then made a coughing noise that sounded vaguely like "Mr. D."

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"And Paul," said Silena, "He's great for a step-grandfather."

"She remarried?" I asked.

"Uh—I'd better leave that to the books to explain!"

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because **_**it **_**makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"So she only half-lied," said Thalia wistfully.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Never was, never will be," teased Annabeth.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him,** **then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"_Eeeeeew,"_ groaned every Aphrodite camper that was present. Just about everyone looked grossed-out though.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

Now even Clarisse's nose screwed up in disgust—which was a first. Gabe, though, was truly disgusting.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"Okay, I hate him. I'm _soooo_ glad I never met him," sighed Luke in relief.

"Yes you did! Remember when we visited that art gallery?" argued Alexis. He blushed, as though trying not to remember.

"I think you mean when we blew up that art gallery in an attempt to avoid being eaten by that manticore. Didn't you knock him out with the _Poker Player_ statue?" Silena asked. I grinned at the thought: my ugly stepfather going flying at Dr. Thorn's head. Although, it might not have been Dr. Thorn . . . still.

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**_

"I would have fainted if he said any of those things."

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Walrus?" questioned Thalia. I shrugged.

"I have no idea."

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"What?!" shouted Annabeth. Many of the others looked outraged as well. I shrugged.

"Doesn't matter now."

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

"Wait—that explains—OH!" said Annabeth, "That's why she married him," she muttered softly. I nodded.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I **_**right**_**?**_**" **_**Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Eugh," said Silena B. as she fainted into Beckendorf's lap. He blushed, helping her recover.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"Brain boy? I prefer Seaweed Brain. Or kelp head," said Annabeth, huffing.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Home sweet home," Silena said bitterly.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

People stared between me and Silena. She shrugged.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,** **or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"That says something, doesn't it?" snorted Thalia.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

"She does that with everyone," confirmed Thalia, "I know from the car ride."

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"I miss grandma," said Luke suddenly, "And this isn't helping."

"I agree. I need some blue chocolate chip cookies," said Silena wistfully. I sighed, thinking the same sort of things.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Lucky!" groaned the Stolls. I just smirked.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right? **

"Is widdle Pewcy okay? How is her widdle boy?" cooed Thalia. I shivered. That was out of character . . . and creepy. Very creepy.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

"Stupid, smelly, greedy, fat, smelly, awful, rude, SMELLY GABE!" said Silena. Luke and Alexis, as well of the rest of us, stared at her.

"You said smelly three times," said both Luke and Annabeth.

"I know."

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Well, maybe not a millionaire. Someone nice like Paul, though," said Silena, "And Gabe should go rot in Hades." No one disagreed.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"Are you kidding me?" snorted Travis.

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"You should have told her."

"I know."

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

"Montauk?"

"It's a spot we always go to," I explained. Silena shook her head.

"That's not what I meant, Dad. I know where Montauk is. That's home for half of the year, while the other half is camp."

"We live at the cabin?" That was my favorite place in the world! However, I didn't think Annabeth would like it . . .

"Nah, it was torn down a while ago. But we've got a house really close by."

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"Out of the money for clothes? How much money is Ugly draining out of your funds?" Nico asked.

"Put it this way: his entire budget would have looked like this: Beer, Poker, Laundry, Junk Food. All money comes from either Sally or Percy," I grumbled. He frowned. _Maybe after all this, he might not hate me so much . . ._

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Do it, do it," chanted the Stolls.

"I wish I had," I muttered.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"The hamster turning the wheels in his brain got tired from figuring out you had cash," stated Connor. Everyone laughed.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

I growled. He'd hit her . . . if I had just known . . . he wouldn't have been able to ask for that dip and we could have lived a little more normally with no stupid poker and beer getting in the way.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"That'd be one heck of a thing to try to explain. Of course, you _did_ manage to end up the car destroyed," chuckled Grover.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Well that settles one thing. By all standards, Gabe is evil. May he rot in Tartarus forever," Annabeth grumbled.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,** **and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"Ugh . . . spiders . . ." shivered Annabeth.

"The sea too cold? Challenge accepted," grinned Silena.

**I loved the place.**

"Only you, Percy," chuckled Alexis. Silena and Luke looked at her oddly.

"What? I can't call him Mr. Jackson here . . . that's too weird . . . he's _our _age."

"Huh. Well, I guess I can't make fun of him by calling him _dad_ now can I?" chuckled Luke.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"Her eyes change color? That reminds me of J—OW!" said Luke, having been hit by Silena.

"If you dare mention the name I will kill you slowly and painfully, dancing and laughing on your grave, and then I will drag your spirit to the Fields of Punishment where you will boil in lava and be forced to listen and sing along to Justin Bieber songs whilst I make you watch a thousand deaths. Then—"

"I get it!" squeaked Luke. Alexis looked at them.

"You mean Jake? The son of Aphrodite? Didn't you have a crush on him since you were twelve up to . . . now?" If looks could carry out the threat she'd just made and continue it, Alexis would be screaming and writhing in pain in the Underworld. **(A/N: Sorry JB fans if there are any reading this. I only ever liked one of his songs, and that was when I thought he was a girl . . . yeah. Moving on.)**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"Anyone notice an excess of blue food?" asked Connor.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Oh."

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Your mother is amazing," grinned Thalia.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"Grandma's a great author. She wrote some amazing books and did really well with them," said Silena proudly.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

I sighed, thinking of those moments.

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

People snickered, but Annabeth said, "And you're a hero," which made me turn red.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"You're lucky he visited you," grumbled a kid from Hermes. I think they were unclaimed.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"That's a valid reason to be upset at least," said Grover.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"Percy," scolded Thalia, "That'll just make her cry!"

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"See," I said, "I didn't mean it badly."

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I **_**have **_**to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Who is?" shrugged the Stolls.

"I think we can all agree that if we're in this circle, we're not normal," chuckled Will Solace, I think an Apollo camper.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"Monsters."

"I know that now."

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Creepy," shuddered Thalia.

"Sure wasn't Tyson," I muttered.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Impressive, for a little squirt," snickered the Stolls again.

"Shut up," I said, my face getting warm.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"An awesome summer camp!" everyone chorused.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"To keep you safe, Seaweed Brain," said Annabeth, rolling her eyes.

"I know that now. Keep in mind, guys, that I never knew about this stuff and I never saw the orientation video either, so I'm slower than the rest of you on a lot of this stuff."

"Nah, you're just slow in general." I glared in the general direction of the voice that said that.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Yay, more omens of impending doom," said Nico, not happy at all.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Anyone who hadn't known the circumstances looked confused.

"Why are our dads fighting?" asked Thalia.

"The book title, your father thinks, is me. In reality, it's a certain traitor." Realization dawned on her face.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"But they're still fighting."

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

"Oh, it's Beef Head," said Silena. Luke snorted.

"Beef head? What kind of a nickname is that for a gigantic bull man?"

"A good one?"

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"Well, he was. The chapter name has come to pass," I explained before anyone could make any comments.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"That you were scaring me?" I asked.

"You should have told your mom the truth," he said simply.

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

_**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" **_**he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell **_**her?"**

"Obviously not, Underwood," said Clarisse.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a goat from the waist down," Grover said with a grin.

"And that is why I call you goat boy," Thalia said.

"I prefer Grover," he pouted, "and Percy doesn't call me goat boy. I like him better now." I smirked at Thalia.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: **_**"Percy. **_**Tell me **_**now**_**!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. **_**Go**_**!**_**"**_

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"You shouldn't have given away your cover, even for enchiladas," said the Stolls. He rolled his eyes.

"I think the enchiladas were more important at the time."

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"What a lovely chapter! Hey, what's the next one?" Silena B. asked. But before she could get an answer, a flash of light appeared beside us.

"Perseus Jackson you—you—Seaweed Brain!" shouted one of the two adults next to us.

"Annabeth, you do realize we're already here, right? And that I like it when you call me that? ...Nico, can you help me out here?" And I finally got a good look at them.

One of them was a tall man that reminded me of my dad—well, except this guy didn't have a beard and wasn't wearing an outfit straight from the Bahamas, and maybe this one looked a little younger. He had an adult sized Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and jeans, and had a good tan. The woman next to him was blonde with grey eyes, wearing a similar outfit. Both of them were either in their thirties or forties. The guy next to them looked only a little younger, and reminded me of some rock band posters I'd seen—dark clothes, ripped jeans, spiky black hair and a skull ring. Wait, that skull ring was familiar . . .

"Mom! Dad!" shouted Silena and Luke together. My eyes widened as I suddenly got it.

"Luke, Silena, I'm glad you're okay," the older Annabeth said, relieved.

"You can't be serious," I groaned.

"No, I'm Perseus, not Sirius," said the older me. He smirked and people snickered.

"Dad?" asked Alexis, tentatively pushing back some of her hair at the sight of the older Nico.

"Alexis, I can't believe it . . ." he breathed. They were suddenly in a huge embrace.

"Why did you run off without telling us?" he asked, "We would have let you go, you know. I've done my fair share of sneaking out."

"I wanted to help Luke and Silena, and I knew that if I told you, you'd stall me and I'd never catch up. Grandmother Hecate got me first though," she muttered. Then the older Nico went to sit with his younger self—the same with the older me and Annabeth.

"Are you friends with them or something?" asked the Nico from my time in a disgusted tone. His older counterpart laughed.

"You bet. In fact, Perce helped me ask Charlotte out in the first place . . . and look where that ended up," he grinned happily. Nico turned red, looking between his older self and Alexis, realizing what that meant.

"So we don't get confused, I'll go by Mrs. Jackson instead of Annabeth," said the older Annabeth. The other me made a face.

"I don't want to be called Mr. Jackson. That makes me sound old. Perseus works though—or Dad, from you two." Nico chuckled.

"I'm okay with Di Angelo, since my younger self prefers Nico. We're all friends here . . . eventually . . . so, I'm assuming we're going to read another chapter, right?

"You bet. Let's see . . ." **My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting**


End file.
